Hotel group Whitbread continues to advance its portfolio of UK hotels, as the country’s leading economy brand drives further growth in key city markets.
The business invests directly in new hotel developments, giving it greater control over opportunities to create new accommodation in markets where it sees expansion potential. Many of these city centre opportunities involve the acquisition of existing office buildings, which can be converted to hotel use.
Growth in Scotland
In Edinburgh, the company has won consent from planning authorities to convert Capital House, a centrally located office block. The property will be extended and remodelled to create a 195 room hotel. It will join a network of 14 Premier Inn hotels already operating across the city region.
Jill Anderson, acquisitions manager for Scotland at Whitbread commented: “Getting the green light to convert the 1980’s office into a latest format Premier Inn is a huge achievement for the team and we will waste no time in breathing fresh life into the empty building and adding another high-quality location for our customers in Scotland.” The company recently won consent to build a new Premier Inn hotel at the city’s airport. The 218 room property will be delivered by developer Riverstone, for an opening in 2028.
And in London, the group has acquired another central office block for conversion. Victory House in Kingsway currently has office tenants in the building, but once they vacate, Whitbread plans to create a 200 room hotel for its Hub by Premier Inn brand. The city centre focused sub-brand has more compact rooms, designed to help reduce the cost of overnight stays in urban locations. So far, there are 18 Hub hotels, in London and Edinburgh, with the largest yet, a 693 room property close to Trafalgar Square, just starting construction.
The freehold office block in Kingsway was acquired in an off-market transaction, and is the fourth significant acquisition in London that the company has made during 2025. Taken together, the four deals amount to an investment of more than GBP100 million in the growing hotel portfolio.
A second brand with city appeal
“The vision behind Hub by Premier Inn is to offer all the great things about Premier Inn in the most central, accessible and exciting places,” said Jonathan Langdon, senior acquisition manager for Whitbread. “Investing here matches our network plan and complements our trading and pipeline hotels – it also rounds off an especially active year for Whitbread in Central and Inner London where we have made four significant purchases and lease commitments, collectively adding close to 1,000 prime located rooms into our pipeline.”
Elsewhere, the group is working on several other office to hotel conversions. These include Phoenix House in London’s Vauxhall district, being converted to a 180 room hotel. In Leeds, Verity House in the South Bank area of the city centre will be switched into a 131 room Premier Inn, following approval by the city’s planning authority.
